George David Woods

George David Woods (July 27, 1901 – August 20, 1982 had moved the family to find shipyard work. Woods had thereby become familiar with the workings of the World Bank.

Whereas the first three World Bank presidents had focused on loans for reconstruction, Woods shifted the bank towards a primary focus on less developed countries. By the end of Woods's tenure, the bank was engaged in a far broader range of developmental activities than at its beginning.

Woods led a major expansion in the World Bank's lending for agriculture and for agrarian reform. Additional lending went to water supply, and "technical assistance".

The main beneficiaries of the new developmental lending were India and Pakistan, rather than the newly emerging African nations.

In 1966, despite the General Assembly of the United Nations passing resolutions condemning the apartheid regime in South Africa and the continuing colonial subjugation of Angola and Mozambique by Portugal as violations of the U.N. charter, and despite a personal plea from U.N. Secretary General U Thant to Woods, the World Bank proceeded with a $10 million loan to Portugal and a $20 million loan to South Africa.

Woods increased the number, power, and influence of economists at the bank. In 1964 he hired Irving S. Friedman as the newly created position of economic advisor to the president. The economists were instrumental in advancing American interests. In his first address to the World Bank's board, he pledged to explore “all possible ways in which the Bank can help to widen and deepen the flow of private capital to the developing countries”. He added that he was convinced that countries which accept this "will achieve their development objectives more rapidly than those who do not", and "that means, to mince no words about it, giving foreign investors a fair opportunity to make attractive profits".

Additional posts Woods was a director of The New York Times Company. He was a member of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future.

In addition, long after he had turned over the leadership of the First Boston Corporation of New York, Woods maintained an office in New York and was sought out by executives around the world for consultation.

Personal life Woods married Louise Taraldson in 1935. They had no children.

Woods never moved to Washington DC, not even during his tenure as World Bank president. The couple lived in Manhattan, and had a second home in Lisbon.

Woods was close to Nelson A. Rockefeller, and for a time had a home at the Rockefeller estate at Pocantico Hills, New York.

Woods died in Lisbon in 1982 at the age of 81. His wife died in Manhattan in 1986 at the age of 78.